Koha Question of the Week: How Can a Waiting Hold be Extended?

by Hebah Amin-Headley on Aug 23, 2024

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: How Can a Hold be Extended?

Answer: Many libraries will, as a courtesy, extend a hold past the initial expiration date on patron request. While there is not currently a way to do this in Koha in batch for libraries that need to extend a large number of holds, it is possible to do on a hold-by-hold basis.

From the patron's record, click through to the item's bibliographic record, and then to the holds list. From there, find the patron's waiting hold.

Before a hold is marked waiting, that expiration date is often populated by the DefaultHoldExpirationdate system preference to a default value, often a year after the hold is placed, or by a patron-provided expiration date after which they no longer want or need the item. Once a hold is marked waiting for them, the expiration date is calculated based on the ReservesMaxPickUpDelay value. (As of 24.05, libraries can also set differing holds pickup periods in their circulation rules for item types or branches with different pickup periods for some or all of their holds.)

Staff can use the date picker on the hold expiration date column to set a new pick-up-by date. And then, importantly, select that hold and hit the 'Update existing hold(s)' button to save the change.

Additional Resources

Monday Minutes: Holds Awaiting Pickup